Winter is “meeting season” for farmers. In February, Randy Overman, Miami County, Ind., attended a different kind of meeting, this time in Sao Paulo. As he stepped out of his comfort zone, he experienced many surprises. The first was landing in the middle of a city of 20 million people.

“It didn’t take long to figure out I wasn’t in Butler Township in Miami County,” he says, laughing.

Overman went to Brazil as part of a team of 15 Americans from across the country with a Christian organization called Wheels for the World. This ministry distributes used, donated, refurbished wheelchairs to needy people in countries around the world who wouldn’t otherwise have access to one.

Overman had thought about going for some time, but this was the first time that a feasible trip didn’t fall during either planting or harvest. He had dual motivations for making the trip. The first was having heard from his brother-in-law — yours truly — about “Wheels” trips I’ve been on, and how much I love them. The second struck even closer to home.

“My nephew, the late Peter Boone, spent most of his life in a wheelchair, and I know what a difference having one made in his life,” Overman says. “I wanted to help do that for others.”

More surprises  

The group who traveled to Sao Paulo worked as a multidisciplinary team that included a team leader, physical or occupational therapists, “wheelchair mechanics,” and support staff, as well as interpreters and volunteers from a large local church. Overman’s role was a mechanic, making modifications on wheelchairs to custom-fit them to their new recipients, some of whose bodies are misshapen due to their disabilities. On 8:30 a.m. of the first workday, Overman received his “baptism by fire.”

“As a farmer, I could just about change the bearings on a corn planter’s double-disk opener with my eyes closed,” he says. “But making modifications on wheelchairs was a whole new ballgame. Our first client was a young boy with cerebral palsy, and we worked on that chair for hours to get it to fit.”

CUSTOM FIT: Randy Overman (kneeling) reflects on a job well done after helping fit a young man with his first-ever wheelchair in Sao Paulo. Also pictured are two Brazilian teammates.

His next surprise was more pleasant. “I was amazed at how well we were able to teamwork with the local volunteers,” he says. “In many cases we really couldn’t communicate that well, but with the help of translators, we were able to get it done, and we really hit it off very quickly.

“I made some really good friends, and one volunteer, Francisco, a former-engineer-turned-pastor, could do about anything that needed done on a wheelchair. He and I became good friends, and we still text back and forth.”

A few months after the trip, Overman reflected on a different kind of sowing and reaping. “We all went to try to help people get wheelchairs, and it was great to be able to do that,” he says. “It was especially good to see the smiles from the little children when they got one, and it was also great to meet new people and make new friends.

“But I really came away feeling kind of overwhelmed, at how by providing this opportunity to serve, the Lord had blessed us.”

Boone writes from Wabash, Ind.